


Not so different

by SpaceMalarkey



Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Heart-to-Heart, Hurt No Comfort, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-24 20:13:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22003804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceMalarkey/pseuds/SpaceMalarkey
Summary: Warriors returns home after the band of heroes finally achieve their goal. He doesn't feel like he thought he would.A person from his past gives him some insight, yet it does nothing to ease his pain
Comments: 3
Kudos: 64





	Not so different

**Author's Note:**

> A small idea that has been sitting in my google drive for far too long

Somehow she is here, once again joined with her other half, and standing in front of him. Her robes turned white, and her staff gleaming with power. Warriors doesn’t feel what he used to when he looks upon her form. He feels nothing of the dread that used to follow Cia’s gaze. All he feels now is a desperate need, a desperate ache in his chest.   
“We meet again, hero,” Cia speaks, her voice a strange mix of Cia and Lana. A dignity only found in Cia, and a soft warmth only Lana could possess.   
“That we do,” he answers her with a strange ease. It shouldn’t be so easy to speak with Cia, not after all she had done to him, but it is. Maybe it is because his mind is occupied with greater emotions.   
The mighty sorceress gives him a soft look full of understanding. Maybe he doesn’t have to tell her why he feels the way he does. Maybe she already knows. She is the guardian of time, after all. He finally understands her, he thinks. How it feels to worship something so deeply that temptation lurks, taking his every thought and luring him closer to madness and loneliness. 

“I feel like that foolish boy who thought he could take on the entire world by himself. That I could be so mighty as to keep them with me, and shield them from everything harmful.”  
He pauses, gathering the strength and courage he is so famously known for, and he continues. “Like I could destroy time itself, and be their savior.”  
The sorceress closes the distance, and gently places a hand on his cheek. He is so much taller than she is now, he notices.   
“You sound like me, so long ago,” Cia tells him softly. “You might remember feeling confident. So sure of yourself that you could take on anything in the world.” Then, she looks away, removing her hand. “But I remember the delusion of power. The only thing separating us now, is that you were truly mighty, where I was just a pretender.”

Cia looks somber as she leans on the windowsill, staring out at the setting sun gracing the plains with her last light. “We walked the same road, it seems. Had the same views, same ambitions. And then the road forked. I walked the paths to hell, to desperation and filth, while you walked the roads of the heavens, only good and pure intentions on your mind. In the end, our roads met once again."

"So here we are," Warriors mutters.   
"Yes, here we are," Cia agrees. "Your steps may have lead you to me once again, yet I no longer wish to pain you with my presence. I will leave you if you so desire."  
She turns to leave, and he feels a desperate need to have her close. Hastily he grabs her wrist, halting her departure.   
"Don’t," he asks her. "Not yet, just-” he hesitates, wondering is this is truly what he wants, and if it will truly ease his sorrows. What if they only serve to make him spiral out of control? What if seeing them again only causes him more pain?  
No, he decides. He has to see them, he has to. “Let me see them. I don’t want to talk to them just- Let me see that everyone is okay?" 

The sorceress turns her head to look at him. Surely to pity him, yet her gaze is filled with longing and pain, and Warriors finally realises how alike they truly are.   
"My dear Link," she says. "I cannot do that. I have meddled with time enough as it is. Don’t repeat my mistakes. It only ends in heartache."  
“It already does,” he whimpers, and stays comfortably still as Cia turns and cups his cheeks gently in her hands.   
In this moment, he wonders why he ever feared her. In her eyes, he sees his own emotions mirrored. Pain, longing, sorrow. Her soul is crying in unison with his. 

“I used to fear you,” he tells her.   
Her smile is filled with agony.   
“No, my dear hero,” she whispers, moving closer and hugging him gently. “You used to fear yourself.”

He doesn’t know how long they stood there, holding each other. Two souls so very alike, yet so drastically different, sharing their grief and their pain that no one could ever understand.   
Alone, despite having found each other in their shared misery. 


End file.
